12 The Sunday Times May 3, 2020 COMMENT

ESTABLISHED 1822 Justine McCarthy A way out of virus restrictions Lockdown should — but not electoral stalemate open up our minds e wrote last Sunday that, for the public has been increased from with Covid-19 largely 2km to 5km, but unwinding the lockdown under control, the task for proper will not begin until May 18. Further the government was two- easing of restrictions will take place at fold: unwinding the three-weekly intervals up until August 10. restrictions that have put But it is clear from the conditions Gravity of coronavirus crisis gives us a chance to challenge the status quo the economy into cold attached to the various activities as they storage and managing are unwound that the country will be t was while in quarantine at his childhood biggest industrialised countries should hold pronouncement in Nicaragua that the disease is Wexpectations as to how that can be operating in a completely different world, home during a bubonic plague lockdown the greatest sway. For most of the past century, “a sign from God”. None of this means women achieved. On Friday, Leo Varadkar met both economically and socially. While of his Cambridge college that, according those countries have ruled the roost, from automatically make the best rulers. It just that challenge. There will be arguments there are promising developments on the to legend, Isaac Newton was struck — Davos to the UN security council, Nato to the means men do not. That may seem a blindingly about the details that emerged from the testing of drugs to treat Covid-19, there is metaphorically, at least — by a falling apple G8, reducing the rest of the world to the role of obvious conclusion, but it is one to which the taoiseach’s presentation, but what cannot much uncertainty about the prospects for in his family’s orchard. Thus did he devise impotent spectators. As we watch with sadness world has remained blind for too long. In our his law of universal gravitation, which while China, America, Italy, France and the UK pre-Covid patriarchal age, a man could carve a be disputed is that there now exists a clear a vaccine to combat the disease. There would provide the genesis for the buckled under the coronavirus, there has been pedestal for himself in the international power road ahead — albeit one that may contain may be one in a couple of years, or there Iindustrial revolution. In that moment of a gradual realisation that, if size matters, it’s league armed with only a sackload of a few unexpected potholes. may never be one at all. What this means normal life suspended by a terrifying plague, not in the way we have been measuring it. bombastic inanities and a mother lode of self- The taoiseach himself knows that the is that a high level of fear will remain in Newton changed the world. Smaller, less crowded, less urbanised and less entitlement. And the world has suffered for it. cabinet’s plan is likely to prove controver- significant parts of the community even Over preceding centuries, physicists had industrialised countries appear to be faring For most of us, with our limited experience sial, alluding in a television interview on after August 10 when the “new” normal been chipping away at Aristotle’s theory that better in mitigating the pandemic. This does of one pandemic, the suspension of life falling objects land the way they do because not mean that big is, therefore, bad. It means outside the front door has switched on the light Friday night to the disputes that are likely comes into being. of their inner weight. No alternative theory small has its advantages, too. of reflection. While political leaders make to erupt at a later stage. This is inevitable. For good reasons, social distancing is managed to debunk comprehensively the Even in the world’s testosterone-driven urgent decisions in the endeavour to save lives, After all, the economy, for the most part, going to become second nature for many Aristotelian consensus that had prevailed for political offices and boardrooms, it is being the majority of us have time to contemplate went into lockdown at the same time. As people and, even with enhanced testing hundreds of years quite as unequivocally as acknowledged that many countries run by how decisions being made to address the here it reopens, however, some sectors will be and contact tracing, that will lead to unim- Newton’s insight. In a time of paralysing women have managed to flatten the curve and now have the potential to improve the favoured over others, leading to resent- aginable changes in our way of life. Fear uncertainty wrought by a plague that would kill faster than others. See Angela Merkel’s future. Paradoxically, the more we don’t 25 million people, one of humankind’s most Germany, Tsai Ing-wen’s Taiwan, Jacinda know, the more we question what we thought ment and anger among business owners will have a dampening effect on consumer fundamental certainties was demolished. Not Ardern’s New Zealand, Katrín Jakobsdóttir’s we did know. who feel that they are being further disad- behaviour, with inevitable consequences only did Newton’s discovery change the world, Iceland, Sanna Marin’s Finland, Erna Solberg’s In the past, whenever an alternative code to vantaged by the schedule of reopenings. for the public finances, which are mas- it changed how the world thought. Norway and Mette Frederiksen’s Denmark. liberal capitalism was mooted and dismissed We believe that the government, for sively dependent on the taxes generated Nearly 400 years later, here we are again, Frederiksen, you may recall, was the prime by masters of the universe, meek acquiescence the most part, has made the right call. It is by spending. The budgetary implications frozen in time and beset by uncertainties. How minister who declined to sell Greenland to the persisted. The philosopher Alain de Botton long will this coronavirus hound us? How many US president Donald Trump last year. has posited that we stifle our will to question easy to underestimate the challenge that are alarming and will present the next of us will it kill? Will scientists find a safe It would be a sweeping generalisation to the status quo because we presume it faced. The daily recitation of medical government with unpalatable choices. vaccine? How long will it take to produce a conclude, on this basis, that women ought conventions must have a sound basis — even if statistics has indicated for some weeks Against that background, the discus- cure? Will there be a second wave of Covid-19, to rule the world. There are possible we are unsure what that is — because so many that we are winning the battle to suppress sion document produced by Fianna Fail and successive waves after that? How many geographical, climatic, scientific, sociological people have adhered to them for so long. Covid-19. But even as the news got better, and Fine Gael in an attempt to woo the businesses will go bust and how many jobs will and cultural reasons why some countries have “It seems implausible that our society we remained subject to the most extreme Green Party and independents into a coali- vanish? How can we survive this viral been less severely affected by Covid-19 than could be gravely mistaken in its beliefs,” he Armageddon that has turned our planet into others. What can be said is that many female said, “and, at the same time, that we would be loss of civil liberties experienced in our tion looks more deluded by the day. In this a global ghost town where wild animals prowl leaders have adopted a more cautious and alone in noticing the fact.” lifetime. This created understandable parallel universe, a country that has been the deserted streets? less economy-driven approach. Merkel is a In our pre-Covid age, migration was viewed frustration for many people and led to subject to an economic collapse not seen Yet, while we grapple with existential prime example. as “a problem” to be sequestered behind grim unrealistic expectations ahead of Mr since the Great Depression can promise doubts, our world is simultaneously witnessing The psychology employed by Solberg and walls and wire fences. Now half the world Varadkar’s announcement two days ago. billions in increased public spending while the demolition of long-accepted wisdoms Frederiksen, in choosing to speak directly to depends on the other half for its food supply, that have impeded real human progress. their countries’ children, is in stark contrast to from the migrant cherry and nectarine pickers The single most important point to maintaining taxation at current levels. Expediency has whipped off the blinkers of Trump’s “try bleach” solution, Jair Bolsonaro’s in Spain and grape pickers in California to the remember is that Covid-19 has not been The challenge is so great that it will be certitude, giving us glimpses of a better future “so what?” response when asked about Brazil’s strawberry pickers in north Co . eliminated: it has been suppressed. This a miracle if Mr Varadkar and Micheál Mar- untrammelled by the prevailing global rising death toll, and Daniel Ortega’s Even after Ireland’s banks were saved from has been achieved only because the public tin, the Fianna Fail leader, can actually orthodoxy. collapsing a decade ago, bank executives were proved exceptionally compliant when put a government together, never mind In Ireland, this has been most dramatically considered deserving of six-figure salaries asked to stay at home and take other one that lasts a full term. As the economic demonstrated by the nationalisation overnight, while childcare workers got paid the minimum albeit temporarily, of the country’s private age. The pandemic has exposed the sheer measures designed to prevent the spread implications become clearer, the task will hospitals, creating a healthcare system that is lunacy of a mindset that handsomely rewards of the virus. If we rush the exits now, it is get ever harder. Mr Varadkar is fighting a equally available to everybody. A psychological non-essential workers and not those who risk inevitable that the outbreak we sought to daily battle on the public health front; he corner has been turned, too, with standard their own lives to save ours. The same prevent by closing the country on March may soon have to prepare for another one Covid-19 payments for anyone who finds mentality encourages mindless consumerism 27 will take place anyway, undermining on the political front. Only an incurable themselves out of work, whether soldier, sailor, and vacuous celebrity, revering “influencers”, rich man or poor man. After this, a trial of basic The suspension “fashionistas”, “taste-makers”, television chefs the national effort that has got us this far. optimist could rule out the prospect of income payments by the exchequer — one of and reality TV participants. It is welcome news that over-70s will be another general election — even though it the Green Party’s requirements for entering of life outside There is a strange liberation in this encouraged to leave their homes for exer- would be contested in the most extraordi- government — has not created as much as a lockdown. We should grasp the opportunity it cise from and that movement nary circumstances. ripple of dissent. Bricks are slowly crumbling the front door gives us to do a great decluttering of the in the universal wall that decrees life was fallacious axioms to which we have clung in never meant to be fair. has switched upholding a worldwide code that has Assumptions become conventional disadvantaged and harmed more people that it wisdom when they ring-fence the interests of on the light benefited. What this crisis tells us is that the those who have most to lose. Let’s start with impossible is possible after all. State may struggle to step up the long-held assumption that the planet’s of reflection [email protected] to the plate for restaurants

For many people, a night out in a favourite workplace, creating misery for their restaurant with friends is one of the pleas- families and another burden on the Sarah McInerney ures of life. Sadly, it is one of the social exchequer. activities most at risk in the post-Covid-19 The crisis facing restaurants has enor- future. Most restaurants operate on mous implications and not only for wafer-thin margins, dependent on extrav- domestic employment: it could also ham- agant mark-ups on wine and other alco- per Ireland’s attempts to revive the vital Just a minute — what holic drinks to create the profits to finance tourist industry. Scenery is great but it’s the operation. Running a restaurant is not the céad míle fáilte eating and drinking cheap and the week’s takings can be experience that really draws in visitors. seriously affected by “no-shows”, a This will add to pressure on the govern- has Nphet got to hide? phenomenon that was being reported ment to lend a helping hand. with increasing regularity just a few The Restaurants Association of Ireland months ago, as the economy began to (RAI) has produced a nine-point plan that exhibit some of the worst excesses of the it argues will give its members a chance of Celtic tiger. Some restaurants cured that remaining in business. These include a problem by taking credit card details in temporary 0% VAT rate; legislation on How state’s virus experts make decisions is a matter of vital public interest advance and charging a fee if the parties rents; an end to banking fees; insurance failed to honour their booking. Alas, payouts; wages supports; grant aid; rates or a while, one of the best things about To be fair to Holohan, by the end of last week infighting among people who are doing their there is no easy fix for the coronavirus, write-offs; a ban on utilities cutting off Covid-19 was that we knew just how the published minutes were all up to date. A best for the country. There is genuinely which has left the industry facing an services or demanding payments from bad it was. Politicians who normally perusal of the documents further undermined something wrong here. Minutes are not existential crisis. closed businesses; and a waiver of licen- made themselves dizzy spinning their Nphet’s “commitment to transparency”, expected to be a faithful transcript of a Chances are that by the time this pan- ces for outdoor seating. In addition to the way out of grim news were instead however. The minutes tell us that the team meeting, but they are, at a minimum, expected demic has played itself out, many restau- nine-point plan, the RAI has a further six rushing, unbidden, to reveal all the decided on March 10 to overrule nursing homes’ to record arguments that are made both in rants will have permanently closed their “asks” on support to ensure recovery. grave, scary details of the virus. Health restriction on visitors — a controversial decision. favour and against decisions made. If there are chiefs, who ordinarily insisted things The record of the meeting doesn’t say whether no such disagreements on Nphet, we have a doors. Seasonally adjusted employment There are so many calls on the state for Fwere not as bad as we thought, instead any of the health experts present argued in problem. If divergence of opinion is simply not in the sector in the final quarter of 2019 funding at this stage it is inconceivable displayed graphs outlining how our hospitals favour of the nursing homes’ decision. being recorded, we have a bigger problem. stood at 179,800, according to industry that every request can be met. The gov- could be overrun. The news itself was awful, A crucial four-hour meeting on March 11, at There are other indications, too, that our figures. Employment in ancillary services ernment, should it decide to dine at this but being given the information, unvarnished which Nphet decided to recommend shutting brief glimpse of a transparent public service is was estimated at a further 72,000. As mat- particular table, may eschew the fixed and terrifying, was like being handed the keys schools and banning mass gatherings, is coming to an end. The Department of Health is to the kingdom. Finally, there was a sense that summarised in just four pages. Did anyone refusing to release letters sent to it from the ters stand, a significant number of those menu presented by the RAI and opt for the we, the public, were in the know. demur from the plan? Was any argument made HSE, which reportedly raise concerns about people are unlikely to get back into their à la carte instead. There are plenty of straws in the wind now for stricter or more lenient measures? We’re the processes that led to a commitment to do to indicate that this golden era of transparency told only that the issues were “discussed”. 100,000 tests for coronavirus a week. may be coming to an end. Indeed, closer The closest to a hint of disharmony is The Department of Justice has refused a scrutiny suggests it never really began. recorded in the minutes from March 8, which Freedom of Information Act request from the The first bump in the road came two weeks note there was a “robust discussion” about journalist Ken Foxe for details of briefings to the ago, when Labour Party leader Alan Kelly cancelling St Patrick’s Day celebrations. justice minister on Covid-19, on the basis that Grand Swiss family idea noticed the National Public Health Emergency There’s no detail on what was said. Charlie Flanagan is getting only “verbal updates” Team (Nphet) hadn’t published minutes of its To be clear, this is not intended as mean- from officials. The justice minister oversees a meetings in almost a month. This committee of spirited crabbing about the apparent lack of police force that has been given unprecedented 32 people dictates how we live our lives: whom powers to restrict the movements of citizens, Switzerland has a population of 8.5 mil- for the disease after all and may not even we may hug; how far we can walk; and what and there’s no written record of his daily lion but has registered only slightly more transmit it. funerals we can attend. How they reach their briefings? This à la carte approach to governance Covid-19-related deaths than ourselves. If this theory is borne out, it will come decisions is a matter of vital public interest. and transparency is unacceptable. The Swiss signalled a limited easing of as great news to many elderly people, who Tony Holohan, chief medical officer and We are just at the beginning of the Covid-19 chairman of Nphet, then did a mea culpa, crisis. There are many more controversial and their lockdown restrictions last week, have been restricted to waving at their claiming the failure to publish the minutes was difficult decisions to be taken, and it is crucial including the gradual reopening of small grandchildren through glass, or at due to the enormous workload of all involved. A crucial four- that the debates and briefings about these schools, restaurants and hairdressing lengthy distances, for fear of contracting It’s a “huge job”, he said. Is it, though? At most decisions are scrupulously recorded. Where salons. the deadly virus. board meetings, a secretary takes notes of what hour meeting possible, this information should be quickly However, the most controversial of the And it will, no doubt, be welcomed is said and it’s approved by members when is summarised communicated to the public. The choices being revisions has been the announcement even more enthusiastically by those child- they next meet. Why is this such a mammoth made now are too big, too fundamental, to task? No one doubts that members of Nphet are tolerate a lazy return to the public sector’s that children under 10 will be allowed to ren’s parents, now that granny and grand- extremely busy, but good governance is not an in just four factory setting of opacity. We’re either all in hug their grandparents, after new dad will no longer have a rock-solid excuse optional extra — especially when it involves this together, or we’re not. research suggested they are not “vectors” to shirk their share of babysitting. decisions of national importance. pages @SarahAMcInerney 12 The Sunday Times November 10, 2019 COMMENT

ESTABLISHED 1822 Justine McCarthy RTE must turn up the volume Loyalty of self-styled on its austerity programme patriots is to our past ven in death, caused Irish households no longer has one, problems for the top brass in RTE. though they do still watch RTE Television The station had planned to unveil on laptops and tablets and listen to an austerity programme early last RTE Radio on phones. The proportion week, but his passing delayed the of homes without a telly will grow. announcement. Then details of Meanwhile, there is a relatively high rate Ultra-conservatives who ‘love their country’ hate how far it has progressed the programme were leaked to a of TV licence evasion: 12.83%. This means newspaper, and the recrimina- €25m a year goes missing. mid the patriotic fervour that equality, no abortion, no diversity, no sex “Cover your mouth when you’re coughing,” Etions started even before director-general The response from communications gripped Britain after the triumphant education, no honestly nuanced journalism, she ordered. “I got a cold from people like Dee Forbes announced that RTE plans to minister Richard Bruton has been lacka- Olympic Games in London in 2012, no broad-minded judges and nobody in you coming into our country and spreading cut 200 jobs next year and reduce costs by daisical. He is putting collection of the TV the BBC came up with a television government that doesn’t agree with them. your germs.” €60m over three years. Even allowing for licence fee out to tender for a five-year quiz show to tap into the zeitgeist. It They yearn for the old country of secrets, You could feel the entire bus stiffen. What the fact that RTE is heavily unionised, that contract and says the government will was called I Love My Country and stigma and a solipsistic state. They want us should we do? If we challenged the shouter, managed to dredge such deplorable all to live by their idea of morality, and some we risked causing her victim further hurt and is not particularly demanding. Ignore the dream up a “device-independent” depths of inanity that it was deemed of them get quite vituperative when others embarrassment. A woman sitting across the special pleading that RTE’s viewers and charge, which will come into effect after Athe worst kind of idiot TV ever. Against a disagree. aisle from the victim reached over, touched listeners have been subjected to in recent this — in 2025, in other words. Politicians backdrop of red pillar boxes, Stonehenge and One of the reasons Pope Francis is not her arm and asked quietly if she was all right. days: Ms Forbes needs to do much more to like nothing better than to give trouble- Big Ben, celebrity contestants competed to say Catholic enough for them is because he has Everyone else kept schtum, albeit with all sorts fix the station. some cans a kick down the road, but this is how many letters there are in the English called them out on this hypocrisy. “How many of brave words swirling inside our heads. Given that the staff numbers at a particularly hefty punt. There is likely to alphabet and what is the capital of Wales. times do we see the scandal of those people Some bishops, too, are not Catholic enough Geographical questions were answered by who go to church, and are there all day or go for the self-appointed police of Ireland’s Montrose have climbed to more than have been two changes of government by contestants pointing to places on a studio map, every day, and then they live hating others or morality. The way some of them rebuke 1,800, a more ambitious target is called for. then. Fianna Fail’s promise to reform the using a fake Yorkshire pudding as the pointer. talking badly about people,” he has said. “This Diarmuid Martin, the archbishop of Dublin Half of the €60m in savings will come from TV licence within a year is more realistic The show lasted all of eight weeks. is a scandal. It is better not to go to church if who has withstood seething scorn for his staff cost reductions, but these include up and distinctly doable. Last month Justin Barrett, founder of the you live like that, like an atheist.” zero-tolerance of child abuse, you would think to 70 musicians from the National Sym- The spectre of the water charges still right-wing National Party, spoke at a meeting Last week, on a silently packed rush-hour he was the devil himself. Much of what he says phony Orchestra, which is being trans- hangs over this Fine Gael-led government. in his hometown of Borrisokane, Co Tipperary, bus in Dublin, we commuters were jolted out is too damned liberal for their liking. and urged the community to resist a of our preoccupation with our mobile phones For example, speaking to a congregation of ferred from RTE to the National Concert It just does not have the bottle to revisit Department of Justice plan to house 84 asylum when a woman wearing a holy medal stood girl guides in Arklow on Thursday, Martin said Hall. Moving the orchestra out of Montrose that unhappy episode by turning the TV seekers there. “I love my country and I want up near the front of the vehicle and shouted he was distressed by “groups who, on false — which was approved by the government licence into a “broadcasting charge”. And my country to be Ireland and I want my at another woman seated near the back. grounds, foment hostility to people like asylum last year — will save only €4m, for example. yet the two things are quite different. country to be an Irish island and I’m not seekers who come from troubled situations Selling the RTE Guide — no more than tak- Water charges were a new imposition, but ashamed of that and I shouldn’t have to be and seek a safer life for themselves and their ashamed of that,” Barrett told the gathering. families. Ireland must always be an Ireland of ing the art off the walls to sell at Sotheby’s — 87% of Irish households already pay the Some people walked out. Others applauded. welcome for the distressed.” has only symbolic value. TV licence fee, and it would make no dif- Afterwards, outside the venue, members of the It is perfectly laudable to love the country RTE’s financial problems have been ference to them if it was called a broad- National Party handed out leaftets bearing a one lives in, but to presume that those born well-rehearsed. The biggest one is a sharp casting charge, a device-independent levy photograph of Dan Breen, a legendary guerilla into that country have a superior love of it to drop in advertising revenue, which has or anything else. Indeed, if such house- freedom fighter from Tipperary. “Stand up for those who choose to come and live in it, or stalled since 2014, and which is down holds were offered a small reduction on Ireland,” the leaflets exhorted. were welcomed into it after fleeing some “I love my country” has become quite the strife-ridden place, is warped thinking. €100m since the Celtic tiger boom. Most the €160 levy, they would sign up with anthemic refrain of ultra-conservative activists. Less-fortunate lands than this one have Irish media organisations have suffered a alacrity. Only the “TV spongers” would be They iterate it and reiterate it ad nauseum with suffered the consequences when self-styled similar reversal of fortunes, and have left to complain. lashings of case-shut definitiveness. Facebook patriots and religious fanatics took over. responded by reducing overheads. RTE’s Before that, however, RTE has to is a hotbed of this pious patriotism that brooks No country is immune. Ireland got an inkling costs have risen by €28m over the past five engage in more serious reform than the no argument. Of course, the insinuation sewn of it in the 1980s and 1990s when raped girls into these plaintive declarations is that anyone were dragged before the courts to stop them years. Licence-fee revenue — contrary to half-measures announced last week. On who dissents from their vision of a judgmental, going abroad for abortions. For that the impression you may have received this front, the omens are not good. For a monochromatic Catholic state obviously hates generation, the cartoon image of a Taliban-type from listening to the intensive lobbying by start, it has taken Ms Forbes more than their country. Accusations of treason get moral police force prowling our airports still RTE executives — has also increased: it’s three years to reveal her big plan which, thrown around by self-styled patriots on social has the capacity to chill. up by 10% since 2014. Last year RTE got when boiled down to its essence, isn’t media like juveniles tossing stink bombs from a Ireland is no longer that place. It has €189m from this source. Added to €150m much of a plan anyway. She could have passing bus. matured and gained the confidence to allow Barrett maintains he is saying nothing Accusations itself to enjoy freedom and self-determination. in commercial revenue, you would think made the case for even greater job cuts, different “from [what was said by] Wolfe Tone, True patriots do not feel the need to scream that was more than enough to run a TV selling 2fm, closing the repeat-laden RTE2 Pádraig Pearse and the 1916 leaders”, which is of treason their love of their country from the rooftops. and radio service in a small country. or moving the station from its valuable patently not true. He aspires to an orthodox They demonstrate it by the good that they do Apparently not: RTE has been running Dublin 4 campus to an industrial estate on Catholic country, contrary to the vision of get thrown for that country. a deficit for some time. the outskirts of the capital. those leaders, many of whom were not born in Referendums, elections and opinion polls Ireland, and who fought for self-determination around on consistently show the majority of people in this We agree that the licence fee is out- Drastic? Certainly, but no more so than in a republic of equals. country have no wish to return to the valley of dated and needs to be modernised. The the measures other companies in the These professions of patriotic love usually go social media the squinting windows and an inflexible, annual charge of €160 is linked to owner- legacy media business have been forced to hand-in-hand with demands for a return to old repressive, doctrinaire past. A minority of the ship of a TV set, and just over one in 10 take. Is Ms Forbes up to the challenge? Catholic Ireland. For some ultra-conservatives, like juveniles minority who yearn for it do so under the Ireland is not Irish enough, nor is the Pope friendly flag of patriotism. When they claim to Catholic enough. They recognise no irony in tossing stink love their country, what they really mean is their simultaneous railings against they love what it used to be. They do not love “Islamification” while twinning their ethnic bombs from what it is now: a place shaped by the wishes identity as inextricably Catholic and Irish. and tolerance of the majority. Will the DUP end up backing To them, Ireland means having no marriage a passing bus [email protected] Mr Johnson’s ‘Betrayal Act’ ?

What is the DUP going to do to stop the Fein. Afterwards, a de facto nationalist “Betrayal Act”? That is the provocative pact emerged in the rest of Belfast, which Larissa Nolan title loyalists have given to Boris Johnson’s will persuade many unionist voters to Brexit deal, which they see as breaking up overlook the DUP’s role in creating the the UK. Their concern is widely shared threat to the Union in the first place. across the unionist electorate in Northern There is a familiar purity about the Ireland. Well-attended “Stop the Betrayal prospect of unionists raging impotently Murphy aside, Gaybo Act” rallies have been held in unionist against the inevitable, especially when it heartlands since the British general elec- involves British betrayal. Loyalists have tion was called. The DUP has joined other been warning about protests, blockages, unionists on the platform at each event, strikes and other classic reflexes from the gave us what we want pledging to stop the Brexit deal. unionist discomfort zone. The DUP is Audiences have given Arlene Foster’s adept at riding these waves of anger, party an easy ride, considering it was which energise its base and distract from responsible for putting Mr Johnson in the awkward question of how its argu- office. In fact, the charge sheet against the ments at Westminster will have any effect. party is damning: the DUP backed Brexit; Would the DUP put Mr Johnson back in Flawed interview with Casey’s lover should not stain broadcaster’s legacy it was instrumental in sinking all previous office and extract fresh promises from Brexit deals, plus previous British prime him on a Brexit deal? That invites the ay Byrne was winding up his remark from Byrne we all remember. “Let’s feminism. It was a low point and, sadly, for minister Theresa May; it finally agreed to a accusation of walking into another interview with Annie Murphy and end with this note and say if your son is half as many women, a career-defining moment. sea border anyway; then claimed it was betrayal. Alternatively, it may be acceding searching for a closing punchline. good a man as his father, he won’t be doing too It was all the more disheartening as Byrne betrayed by Mr Johnson on the details, as to Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn entering The American woman, who had a badly.” Murphy’s reserve finally cracked. “I’m had gleefully given a platform to Ireland’s if it had not been warned all along. No 10. This is not such anathema to union- secret son with Eamonn Casey, was not so bad either, Mr Byrne”, she responded, feminist firebrands such as Nell McCafferty and Some observers hoped the election in ists as many believe — the DUP has kept on The Late Late Show in 1993 to and promptly disappeared off the set. Sinéad O’Connor. He hosted numerous Northern Ireland would be about leave channels open to Labour since 2017. An publicise her tell-all book, Forbidden The applause that followed her comeback programmes on feminism, including one in Fruit: The True Story of my Secret remark must have been an indication to the 1980 when he handed over the presenter’s seat versus remain, rather than orange versus existential threat to the Union could jus- GLove for the Bishop of Galway. master broadcaster, known for his instincts, on The Late Late Show to . green. Instead, Brexit has made the elec- tify working with Labour, which wants a Murphy had wanted the final word on how that he had called this interview wrong. His When schoolgirl Ann Lovett died giving birth at tion another tribal headcount. The DUP new Brexit deal put to a referendum. Casey had pressured her to have their son attitude had revealed a blind spot, or perhaps a grotto, hundreds of women wrote to his radio has used the fear of a threat to the Union to Comments from unionists and loyalists adopted. “Don’t forget, Eamonn harangued me a prejudice. show, and he honoured their stories of tell voters to circle the wagons around the indicate an assumption the DUP must and bothered me to the point I could never This is not back in some “other” Ireland: I concealed pregnancy and abortion by reading have another child again. He’d say to me, remember watching the interview as a out their letters on air. largest unionist party — namely, itself. The back Mr Johnson instead of Mr Corbyn, ‘Those adoption papers were there’. And I’m teenager and realising it was unjust. In that But was he being a feminist, or simply UUP stood down in North Belfast, where which must mean Johnson’s Brexit, or not saying that to end on a bad note, I actually moment Gaybo was being “a proper little prig”, abiding by his mantra “Give the people what DUP deputy leader and chief Brexiteer something like it. Consternation at this felt bad for him, I felt sad for him that he would as he once jokingly described himself. With they want”? In the RTE documentary Gaybo, Nigel Dodds faces losing his seat to Sinn prospect is growing. feel that necessary,” said Murphy. that one interview he had undone a reputation journalist Mary Kenny says: “He would have It was an important point made with built up over decades as a champion of Irish made a wonderful editor of a tabloid composure, reason and understanding. Byrne newspaper. He introduced, in effect, tabloid could have left it there, but perhaps in an television.” Provocative debates were staged in attempt to play devil’s advocate, he delivered the interests of a lively show, Byrne agreed, and the greatest insult you can give a strong, proud, not out of “any mission to reform society”. independent woman who has successfully On the Late Late tribute broadcast last Coke users face a comedown raised a child alone: he praised the absent Tuesday, Miriam O’Callaghan said: “I think at a father. “He would say he was doing that, Annie, very early age he was a feminist.” I think his because he didn’t have faith in your capacity to biographer Deirdre Purcell was more accurate Cocaine, according to the late Robin bankers and brokers. Gardai say the look after the child. That’s what he would say.” in saying: “He had, in my opinion, quite a Williams, is God’s way of saying you have average user is a farmer or a nurse, and Instead of slapping him live on air — as I fear feminine side.” I might have — Murphy remained calm. “But I He gleefully Perhaps Gaybo’s innate ability to reflect the too much money. Given that use of the more likely to be found in a rural village have brought that child up well. He [Casey] was public mood malfunctioned that night with drug peaked in Ireland in 2007, just before than at a middle-class dinner party. wrong in that respect. I gave my heart, body gave a Murphy. It shouldn’t taint his record as a the economic crash, it may also be God’s Even though at €70 a gram it makes for and soul, and people will tell you he’s a good world-class broadcaster. Instead, Murphy’s way of saying you might not have that an expensive snack, cocaine is said to be child. I think if I have done anything, I have platform philosophical view on human nature seems money for long. So perhaps we should be as commonplace as “a bag of crisps with brought someone into this world who will to Ireland’s apt. She described Casey as “a great man with concerned by fresh reports that cocaine your pint”. An overdose of harsh reality, continue to do good,” she said. some defects, as we all have”. Gay Byrne was Earlier The Late Late Show host had asked exactly that. use has almost reached Celtic tiger levels which Williams described as “a crutch for her if Casey was the child’s father — an feminist once more. people who don’t do drugs”, is surely on unnecessary indignity, as Casey had admitted Thank you, and good night, This time, however, it is not just the the way. paternity the previous year. Then it came, the firebrands News Review, page 15 14 The Sunday Times September 29, 2019 COMMENT

ESTABLISHED 1822 Justine McCarthy Hot air and little else from the If Greta bothers you, how government on carbon tax do you think she feels? he budget to be unveiled by Pas- character, play by the government. With chal Donohoe next month will Fianna Fail pushing for the easy option of be a reflection of the minister a €5 increase — oddly similar to its obses- himself: understated. With sion with increasing all social-welfare ben- Brexit causing so much excite- efits by a fiver — it may well be that the ment, that may be no bad thing, cabinet goes for just €10 extra. Adults’ denigration of Thunberg is a clear case of shooting the messenger but with four by-elections in late The problem with €10 is that it would November and a general elec- still represent a 50% increase from where he canvas bag was white, the words her scowl at Trump was apparently immature. the facts were not sufficiently stark to terrify Ttion to be held by next May, Mr Donohoe we are today. Provision can be made for written on it were black. “Girls just Her eyes are “cold”, yet when she fought back anyone. Only the congenitally obdurate can would have hoped to deliver something a those who are deemed to be at risk of fuel want to . . . be heard,” they said. The tears at the UN, they decried her for being look at the future and not quake. Besides, little more electorally appealing ahead of poverty, but much larger numbers of peo- girl from whose shoulder the bag emotional and hysterical. which is scarier? A girl spelling out the fateful these tests. As matters stand, the grey ple, mainly in rural Ireland where private hung as she alighted from the Dart on So back to school with her, they say. Odd, facts of climate destruction? Or the president man of Irish politics will produce a very cars are the only means of transport, will Wednesday morning looked only that. Google “rich people who quit school” of America mocking her? slightly older than Greta Thunberg. and you’ll find reverential lists of illuminati. This reaction is not the exclusive chorus of grey budget. enjoy no such safety net. Rural Ireland is “I like your bag,” I said, as our paths Quentin Tarantino, Richard Branson and Walt diehard climate-change deniers. Those people There will be minimum tax cuts, care- where Fine Gael is struggling to connect Tconverged. Her face lit up like Croke Park’s Disney all dropped out when they were about will not be convinced pollution is killing us fully targeted social-welfare increases, a with voters, and to sell the message of an floodlights. “Thank you,” she said, and went Thunberg’s age. Charles Dickens left school until they find themselves clinging to a tiny few previously pledged baubles for young economic upturn. The cabinet is already on her way, books poking out of the bag. A girl at 15. Their non-conformism is celebrated. So atoll while a fluffy white angel strums a harp on parents — free GP care up to age eight, free being accused of being Dublin-centric, with an appetite for knowledge. what is it those lads had in common with each a hovering cloud. Worse are the people who dental care for under sixes — and lots of and out of touch with issues beyond the Thunberg’s 16-year-old head is bursting with other but not with a teenage girl who has got acknowledge humankind is destroying its knowledge. Her sin is that she doesn’t conceal the world talking about human destiny? habitat, but still insist on patronising the money set aside to pay for the fallout from Pale. Increases in carbon tax are designed it. Sugar and spice and all things nice are what The message that most grates with the messenger, drowning her message. Brexit. There will also be an increase in to cut emissions by forcing the public to little girls are supposed to be made of — not Thunberg character assassins is the one that Reports about the destruction of our planet carbon tax from the existing rate of €20 a change behaviour. But when the people opinions, and certainly not cataclysmic goes “grow up, adults”. She is the manifestation are coming fast and furious now. The Irish tonne. It is the precise scale of this who are supposed to change their behav- prophecies. Girls should be frivolous and of an inverted generation gap. Children are the branch of the Environmental Protection increase that is likely to be of most interest iour are not in a position to do so, trouble smiley and fetching. What to do with this grim new adults. Trump, the most powerful person Agency published a report last week showing in Budget 2020. Given the economic dam- may follow. little Swedish earth-changer? Well, shoot her, on the planet, mocks her on Twitter. While breaches of air-quality levels and revealing of course. It’s a tried and tested tactic: if you world leaders behave like big babies, throwing that 1,800 people die prematurely from air age that would follow in the wake of a It was a planned rise in tax on petrol don’t like the message, shoot the messenger. their toys out of the pram from Washington to pollution here every year. So what did the no-deal Brexit, and the possibility of the and diesel in France that inspired the The assassins’ weapon of choice is London, children are demanding they start lofty denizens of the Seanad have to say about country suffering a recession, the last gilets jaunes and forced a government her autism. “Psycho-child,” they call her. acting their age. While Trump and the British planetary damage after returning from their thing Mr Donohoe must feel like doing is climbdown. Mr Donohoe signalled clearly “Evil-eyed,” they pronounce. She says that prime minister Boris Johnson major in lies and 10 weeks of holidays? “I cannot let my first increasing a tax that will add extra penal- at Fine Gael’s pre-Dail gathering in Co her Asperger syndrome is a superpower cynicism, she speaks plain truth. utterance in this house at the commencement because it imbues her with a zest for detail. Thunberg was absolutely correct to say of this session go without expressing my deep ties to users of petrol, diesel and home Cork earlier this month that he is con- Maybe WB Yeats felt the same about his that earth’s rulers are preoccupied with concern for [Thunberg],” said independent heating oil. cerned at getting public buy-in to the car- autism. Ditto Archimedes, the Greek money and economic fairytales. Their senator Gerard Craughwell. “That we are An increase in the carbon tax was built bon tax and will aim for a sequence of mathematician, and Hans Christian Andersen, response? They sneer at the children for being using a child to further the cause of climate into all pre-budget analysis this time last incremental increases, over the next 10 George Bernard Shaw, Beethoven, Virginia frightened — and they blame Thunberg for change and sitting back quietly and watching year, but the government swerved the years, so as not to agitate the public. In the Woolf, Mark Twain and Alfred Hitchcock. Did that too. She’s a “scaremonger”, they say, as if a child break down in front of the world’s issue following advice from officials. The Dail last week, he admonished Mary Lou anybody scorn Al Gore’s climate crusade on media is absolutely disgusting.” the grounds that he has autism? When Mary Robinson, as president of head of steam that has been built up McDonald, the Sinn Fein leader, for her In the same breath with which her detractors Ireland, sobbed at a press conference about the around climate change in the interim scepticism about the effectiveness of car- call Thunberg a “demonic pigtailed puppet”, famine devastation she witnessed in Somalia means hard decisions are being forced on bon tax. He told her there was “a massive they accuse her parents of “child abuse”. How in 1992, her tears changed the course of the cabinet. Ireland, one of the worst per- body of evidence from across the world” self-blind is that? One can only suppose that, international foreign policy. The only one who formers in Europe when it comes to deal- showing that carbon taxes were essential, when all your focus is on the target, there’s no thought ill of her tears was Robinson herself. time for self-examination in the mirror. But she’s over that gendered shame now. ing with carbon emissions, has commit- and yet it appears he is content to proceed Last week a UN report said the world’s Thunberg is not the first teenager with the ted to raising the carbon tax to €80 a with baby steps — having baulked at a bold oceans were getting warmer, more acidic and audacity to take on the status quo. Malala tonne by 2030. A straight-line increase start last year — when we are already in less productive. If we don’t stop polluting the Yousafzai deservedly won the Nobel Peace over that period will not affect consumer danger of missing our Paris climate planet, sea levels could rise by more than a Prize for challenging the Taliban and behaviour as dramatically as front-loaded change targets. metre before the end of the century. Coastal spreading the gospel of education for girls. increases. To make an immediate dent in With water-charge protests still fresh communities could be obliterated, along with Though just 12 when she started, she was not the fish in the sea. This report, by 100 expert Which is subjected to the same vilification as Thunberg. our carbon-emission output, the tax in the memory, don’t be surprised if the authors from 36 countries and containing Of course, Yousafzai came to public attention would have to be at least doubled, to €40. taoiseach Leo Varadkar and his finance 7,000 scientific references, should be scarier? A girl because she was shot in an attempted Given the electoral considerations, that minister leave the heavy lifting on carbon dominating the global news agenda. Instead, assassination on her school bus, but her would be a brave, and therefore out-of- tax to the next government. we get pictures of Thunberg scowling at the US spelling out the salvation was that she was not challenging the president Donald Trump in New York, and integrity of western world rulers. polemicists thundering that she should be in facts of climate In a previous job, I had a sub-editor school. Jesus wept. colleague who, self-deprecatingly, would Mass extinction is on the horizon. We may destruction? imagine arriving home in the evening. “Daddy, be in the final decades of survival. Thousands what did you do today?” he’d say, in his little of animal and plant species have vanished. Yet Or the daughter’s voice. “I drew lines, pet.” Mr Johnson’s twin-track humans are obsessing about a teenager who Some day a child may well ask a parent: can do no right in adults’ jaundiced eyes. She president of “Daddy, what did you do when Greta Thunberg couldn’t possibly be writing those speeches warned the adult world her generation would strategy risky but worthwhile herself, they say, while at the same time America never forgive them for destroying the planet?” claiming her speeches are childishly lacking in “I posted a crazy face on Twitter, pet.” nuance. Her face is expressionless, they say, but mocking her? [email protected] When Boris Johnson attends his first Tory for food and agriculture, the proposal conference as leader this week, he will would be extended to industrial goods. want to ensure that it is not his last. The Customs would be an important sticking prime minister can look forward to an point, particularly for a government eager enthusiastic reception from members to strike trade deals, but could probably who a couple of months ago voted him in be managed with a system of rebates and as their leader, but Mr Johnson needs to tariff adjustments for goods imported to Larissa Nolan achieve more than a standing ovation. the rest of the UK but destined for North- The prime minister’s ambition this ern Ireland. Whether such a deal could fly week is to ride two horses. On Brexit, his with the DUP and Tory hardline Brexit- aim is to maintain the tough approach that eers remains to be seen. It would be secured him the leadership of his party. regarded as a sellout by Nigel Farage, the Coppinger shouldn’t sex That means leaving the EU on October 31 Brexit Party leader. The government and refusing to request the extension would be relying on the country’s weari- demanded of him by the Benn Act, even if ness with a neverending Brexit process to he has failed to secure a deal. Whether persuade enough MPs to back it. up the class issue of rent this can be achieved or not, it has oppo- The second strand of the prime minis- nents of a no-deal Brexit worried enough ter’s approach is to demonstrate that to be contemplating tightening up the leg- under his leadership the Conservatives islation. It has the rest of the EU convinced can become, once more, a one-nation that an early no-deal Brexit is a strong pos- party. It is why he is desperate to be able to sibility. For Mr Johnson, faced with the move on. It is not a lost cause. Flirty texts from landlords must not be allowed to obscure the housing crisis damage the Brexit Party could inflict on Sir Nicholas Soames, who has every him in a general election, this tough reason to be bitter about his expulsion uth Coppinger is making a habit of A screen grab of the conversation indicates he hormones,” texted the landlord. “Hope you stance is vital. from the party, praised the British govern- staging publicity stunts in the Dail. asked her to come and live with him for free, don’t [sic] understand.” To which the tenant His government is also working on the ment’s wider agenda last week and said Last year the Solidarity TD produced instead of leaving, if she fancied him. Another replied: “It’s cool, no worries, goodnight.” broad outlines of a deal. Two years ago the the Conservatives were still his “natural a lacy thong to protest against woman said that a landlord told her, after she What struck me was how intimate the EU was in favour of a Northern Ireland- home”. Even Philip Hammond, the “routine victim-blaming going on in viewed a two-bed house for rent, that she interactions were. I’ve rented in Dublin for Irish courts” due to “rape myths”. would be favoured over other applicants if he 20 years and I have never sent emojis to a only solution, or backstop, to maintain an former chancellor, wrote yesterday that Predictably, the sight of sexy knickers could “call up whenever”. But sex wasn’t a landlord. My communication is professional open border on the island of Ireland. after an orderly Brexit the party can in the chamber caused a stir; it even currency: he was going to charge her more and kept to a minimum, which suits both parties. Theresa May’s government, alert to “come to its collective senses and recon- Rmade headlines around the world. How awful than €2,000 a month. The favour was in Messaging can be open to misinterpretation, objections from the Democratic Unionist firm its mission as a broad-based centre- that Irish women were being shamed for securing the place. or misread as inviting. Party, called for an all-UK customs terri- right party with wide appeal”. wearing lingerie. Another complained because a live-in Because how do you know where the line is? tory, but still did not win DUP backing. The danger in trying to ride two horses Except they weren’t. A defence barrister — landlord had done her laundry and Is it fine if you’re attracted to the landlord — but female — had referred to a complainant’s complimented her figure and dress size. Other harassment if you’re not? Mr Salary, a short Now the government appears to be is that you fall off. We will see in the underwear during a rape trial in Cork. “You correspondence showed a playful exchange story by Sally Rooney, details the sexual tension shifting back towards an island of Ireland coming weeks whether Mr Johnson has have to look at the way she was dressed,” said the that read like the script from a soft-porn movie. between a young impoverished student living solution. Having already floated the idea the skill. senior counsel. “She was wearing a thong with “Apologies if my tongue is loose tonight with rent-free in the house of a wealthy man. When a lace front.” The comment was an aberration; the aid of six beers and my fiery testosterone they end up in bed, she asks: “When will we archaic and absurd. It was not routine. know if this is a bad idea or not?” Coppinger’s latest sensationalist campaign The aim of Coppinger’s campaign is is being trumpeted as an exposé of Ireland’s admirable, but her approach is wrongheaded. “sex for rent” culture. In fact it’s more of a low- She is right to raise awareness about how How can we fill the Xposé void? end #MeToo: Landlord Edition. Buying into it women — single mothers in particular — are requires believing that most Irish women are most at risk of poverty, and have borne the so timid they lack basic assertiveness, and that brunt of a housing crisis that has destroyed most landlords are sexual exploiters in waiting. the social fabric. But the #SexIsNotRent stunt Barely had the country recovered from technology? Just as Dublin’s hipsters will Producing printouts of WhatsApp messages, is an over-reach at a time when the reality is news that the Bernard Shaw pub in Dublin have to find somewhere else to source Coppinger told the Dail that the housing crisis much worse than a few titillating texts. It risks will close before it emerged another cul- Aperol spritzes, fashionistas must look to had created a “perfect storm for predatory undermining our focus on the seriousness tural icon is doomed. Virgin Media is foreign channels for their Kardashian landlords”, and it was “very dangerous” to of a crisis that has left 10,000 people, mostly give them such control over “vulnerable” mothers and children, in emergency dropping Xposé, its fashion and lifestyles fixes and glimpses of Victoria Beckham’s women and children. “Sex for rent is becoming accommodation and many others close to digest, after 12 years. Since magazine-type collection. Xposé’s distinctive theme tune a reality for a lot of tenants,” claimed the TD. What struck me was mental collapse. shows age in dog years, Xposé has in effect will no longer summon women of all ages However, when I studied the WhatsApp What socialists call petit bourgeois gender been running longer than The Late Late from their labours, at close of day, to bond messages provided as evidence of sex-for-rent, how intimate the politics is a diversion that takes the focus off Show, nudging “national treasure” status. over Brazilian waxing techniques. to me there was very little in them. None interactions were the core issue, which is class. We don’t need Where are Irish women to turn in Those cherished customs that make of the case studies showed anyone being printouts of phone messages to further hype coerced into a form of prostitution at a time up a situation that is bad enough as it is. In her search of deathless gems from red-carpet our culture indistinguishable from every of extortionate rents. — I’ve never sent zeal to highlight the exploitation of women, premieres, updates on the new season’s other western society are disappearing One of the women who came forward was Coppinger is in danger of inadvertently heel height or the latest in eyebrow before our eyes. moving out when a landlord propositioned her. emojis to a landlord exploiting them herself.